Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa says it has invested more than R125-million to upgrade the 3 000-metre vehicle conveyor system at its Silverton plant, thus increasing production capacity for the Ranger (the best-selling vehicle in SA year-to-date) and Everest.
The move is part of the local arm’s manufacturing expansion plans to increase the Pretoria plant’s capacity by 22% from 27 jobs-per-hour to 33 jobs-per-hour by January 2018.
Ford says the new conveyor system “optimises the plant’s automated electro monorail system Webb conveyor between the body shop and paint shop”, thereby improving overall production efficiency by reducing stoppages.
In theory, this means fewer delays in production and an increase in the number of vehicles manufactured for the South African market, as well as for export to markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Ford says that an additional benefit of the new system is that the conveyor decouples the body shop from the paint shop, which allows one area to continue work should the other have a stoppage.
In addition, the new conveyor creates what Ford calls a “buffer zone” between the two areas, which allows for last-minute body-panel adjustments and repairs to be made before the vehicles enter the paint shop.
